Healing Summer Cuts and Bug Bites

July 8, 2018

While you may love to eat honey right from the jar, it is good for so many other things besides using it to bake with, sweeten drinks, drizzle over food or soothe fiery marinades. You can also use honey to help clean wounds, reduce inflammation and promote new tissue growth. Summer is the season of scraped knees and itchy insect bites and honey's antiseptic and antifungal properties can help treat these annoying and often painful conditions.

Relieve Itches from Bug Bites

Honey's anti-inflammatory properties make it ideal for soothing the itch and redness caused by insect bites, particularly mosquitos. Because honey has the added benefit of being anti-microbial, it can also help prevent infection.

Tip: Use a Q-tip and take a small amount of honey and apply it directly to the bite.

Treat Skin Injuries

Honey dressings haven been shown to be an effective antiseptic treatment for burns, scrapes, incisions and ulcers. When honey comes in to contact with a wound, hydrogen peroxide is slowly produced, which generates antibacterial activity that does not damage body tissues.

Tip: Spread honey on the cushioned part of the bandage and apply the treated dressing to the wound